Umbrellas are widely used to shield the user against rain and sun and other effects of the weather. There are both portable and stationary umbrellas and some umbrellas that are both portable and stationary, for example a beach umbrella that is positioned on the beach daily and remains there until it is put away in the evening. In order to be conveniently folded, carried and stored when not in use, umbrellas tend to be relatively lightweight and contain only the minimum amount of structure. Due to this construction, many umbrellas do not perform well under high winds. Without warning, a single gust of wind can cause the canopy of the umbrella to invert from its normal downwardly concave position to the opposite convex position, often damaging the umbrella so that it is no longer usable and causing the user to no longer be protected against the weather's elements.
This tendency for an umbrella to invert in high winds is exacerbated by the fact that the canopy of the typical umbrella and the ribs of the canopy are typically made of very thin, lightweight materials. Moreover, it has been the experience of the applicant that even relatively expensive umbrellas marketed as being “wind-proof” are not immune to this problem. Accordingly, there is a need for an umbrella attachment that serves to keep an umbrella's canopy intact during strong wind gusts.
One challenge that has until this point not been overcome is the fact that many users of umbrellas do not have a windproof umbrella and do not know if and when they will ever need their umbrella to be windproof. This is because weather in general and wind specifically can be very unpredictable. Even those who do purchase a wind proof umbrella, even though they may pay much more than they would for a standard umbrella, do not realize it may not completely prevent inversion because of subtle defects in the design or because it simply was not meant to meet their specific application. The physical surroundings, such as the presence of tall buildings in an urban setting, for example, can cause wind force and direction to change suddenly without warning. Also, many people who use umbrellas in the course of their business or personal travels find themselves encountering various weather conditions that make it even more difficult to know in advance how to prepare for them.
The issue of preventing umbrella inversion has been addressed by others in the past. However, their attempts have inherent shortcomings, which this invention intends to address. Some attempted solutions have tried to permanently attach such apparatuses to an umbrella, but these solutions have not sufficiently addressed the needs of the industry owing to their awkwardness and lack of portability and their inability to be used on multiple different umbrellas of the user having varying sizes.
For example, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,407,317 to Crandall (hereinafter referred to as Crandall), one attempted solution to this problem was to provide an umbrella reversal prevention structure having adjustable bands attached to the center shaft of the umbrella and extending outward to the outer ends of the umbrella's canopy. The adjustable bands are set to a preselected distance to create tension to prevent the reversal of the umbrella during high wind force. Crandall teaches permanently attaching the multiple straps to the center shaft of the umbrella at a position that is above the runner of the umbrella and that is in a downward direction towards the outer portion of the canopy.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,637 to Figueroa (hereinafter referred to as Figueroa), describes a device to prevent inversion of an umbrella, where cords of a fixed length are mounted to a central runner of the umbrella and the ribs of the umbrella in order to maintain the concave shape and discourage the outward and upward bending of the ribs which can lead to inversion. However, the system shown in Figueroa is not removable from the umbrella and is intended to be a permanent fixture of the umbrella.
Although there have been the aforementioned and many other attempts to solve the problem of inverted umbrellas, such techniques have also failed to disclose a method of inversion prevention which can be practically retrofitted to any number of already existing umbrellas of varying sizes simply by removing, reattaching, and adjusting the apparatus.